“I am so confused! There are so many different recommendations out there about ‘good’ nutrition that I can’t figure out fact from fiction.” If I had a dollar for every time I have heard this statement or one like it I would be a very rich woman.

To answer this question I have to say only this; that good old fashioned nutrition is coming out tops in all the latest research. By old fashioned, I mean really old, as in the days when your mother told you to eat your vegetables, and made sure you ate two to three pieces of fruit a day. She always gave you the benefit of three-square-meals a day and a few good nutritious snacks as well. Fast food, soft drinks or sodas, sweets, cakes or lollies were treats seen only on weekends or once a month when you went on a picnic, they were not daily dietary habits. In those days people worked hard and long and still found time to play games with their kids, they are also proving to be a very long lived generation.

So let’s take a look at why this old fashioned lifestyle created such wellness, energy and a great outlook on life.

Back in the days before everyone became so much busier because of technology, and you thought it was meant to make your life easier. It seems to me that technology made it easier to be in constant contace and so people now expect you to answer them immediately or they want to know why. Technology has made it easier to be busier and so we skip meals or opt for fast food, just to keep up with our constantly updated schedules. I have to ask you, have you thought about, not answering your phone? Or checking your emails? Or fast forwarding that memo, during meal times or during me-times?

What are me-times, I hear you ask? They are the highly important VIP all areas access times that you take to recharge you. They need to be right at the top of your priority list, not at the bottom where they more than likely are now. Without these times as your top priority where will you ever find the energy to give the best of yourself to your endeavours and become the success I know you can be? I promise you, the world will not stop if you take time out to eat well, exercise and de-stress. In fact the very people you want to impress will be impressed with your dedication to yourself. Why? Because the most successful people do exactly that, and one thing my NLP and Coaching Master courses have taught me well, is to model yourself on the people who have the kind of success you want to have.

Warren Buffett, Richard Branson and Donald Trump all take time every day to eat well and take me-time to exercise and relax, or they would not be where they are now. So this article is about eating well, so let’s take a good look at that now that we have my little soap-box moment out of the way.

Good old fashioned nutrition begins with living food, the kind that still has life in it like vegetables and fruit, these are the carbohydrates that should make up about 70 to 80% of what you eat each day. Not the breads, pasta’s, cakes, biscuits, chips, sodas, ice creams, and other sugar-based foods and drinks that people seem to eat so much of these days. Vegetables and fruit still have their electrical energy and are not dead foods. Oh, you didn’t know that vegetables and fruit had electrical energy? Well, my science students would be proud to show you their fruit clocks, which are small electric clocks that are run on the electrical energy of food. We ran an experiment to find out which foods had the most electrical energy and it changed the way my year 9 students thought about food for the rest of their life.

Did you know that a banana will run a fruit clock for approximately 2 ½ weeks? Or that a lemon (the highest electrical energy charge of all) will run one for 6 months? We tested many things including a favourite food of teens, a hamburger from a well known chain (which will remain nameless), no cudo’s for guessing that the hamburger didn’t even start the clock.

This electrical energy actually interacts with our own, yes each of our cells hold a charge too, and this is one of the reasons live food can create such good health. This little boost of electrical energy increases absorption of nutrients from these kinds of foods. This effect can also been seen in some foods that are not fresh, however they had to have been dried or packaged or processed under very special circumstances. So if you are like me and love my green barley extract (a powder) or my acai complex juice (a bottled juice) you need to make sure that you only buy from reputable and good quality companies that take care to preserve not only the nutrient density of the product but as much of this live cellular electrical charge as well.

Vegetables and fruit grown in organically in good soils, are naturally high in antioxidants, minerals and vitamins, and fibre and are the foundation of any good nutritional lifestyle. Ask yourself right now, does 70 to 80% of my dietary intake consist of fruit, vegetables or nutrient dense versions of them? If not, it might be time to rethink your dietary lifestyle.

What about the other 30 to 20% of your nutrient intake? This needs to consist of quality protein, fats and oils and wholegrains in that order. Good quality protein is trimmed meat of any kind, fish, chicken, whey protein concentrate or isolate, eggs, or soft cheeses like cottage cheese. Some vegetables and fruit also contains protein which is a surprise to most people, but please just search Acai berry and note that it actually contains more protein than eggs per gram and is filled with essential amino acids which are one of the main reasons we need to eat protein. (for more info)

Protein helps us build the components of our bodies, the tissues are all made of proteins and many of the interactions in our bodies are catalyzed by amino acids, my friends in biochemical research have told me that we do not eat enough good quality protein any more. By good quality I am talking about protein rich foods that have not been cooked in saturated fats, or combined with other bad fats like transfats, or hydrogenated fats.

However, we need fat in our diet, so do not avoid good fats without adequate good quality lipids in our diet we will suffer skin problems, immune deficiencies and hormonal disorders. Good fats consist of oils and fats like virgin olive oil, fish oil, primrose oil, coconut oil, and more.

Wholegrains, are the only starchy grains we should be putting into our diet, not those white overprocessed grains that have the nutritional benefits of eating cardboard. Wholegrains are full of the energy of life, and carry the lipids (in the germ) and the fibre we need to create health and vitality.

Are you starving in the face of plenty? Your body may be starved for nutrients even though you are eating a lot. So please take the time today to rethink your nutrition and ask yourself, “Am I tired and stressed because of my workload or because I do not feed my starving body the nutrients it needs to give me the energy I need to work and play hard?. Get on board the nutrient lifestyle revolution and take charge of your heath today.